Spanish court probes UK tourists over ‘fake stomach bug’ payouts

HUNDREDS of British tourists are facing a criminal investigation for making holiday sickness claims after staying at all-inclusive hotels in Majorca.

Lawyers acting for a hotel group passed a file of allegedly bogus allegations to a court on the holiday island – and a judge has been ordered to investigate them.

The move, which follows inquiries by private detectives, represents a significant step in the fight by foreign hoteliers against fake food claims by British tourists. The case is believed to be the first and biggest of its kind and follows warnings that Britons could be banned from all-inclusive holidays because of a spike in claims which is costing the holiday industry millions of pounds.

The activities of touts who encourage tourists to make false claims has been highlighted by the Mail. Travellers are told to make illness allegations on the basis they can win payouts of between £3,000 and £5,000 per person. The firms then take a fat fee for securing the payout.

Most cases involve all-inclusive resorts. Claimants can then say they only ate at their hotel, making it easier to identify it as the source of their supposed bug.

Earlier this month a British man was arrested in Majorca – and a second placed under formal inves- tigation – on suspicion of encouraging tourists to make fake food poisoning claims after allegedly targeting them outside hotels in the north-east of the island.

The investigation by a court in the Majorcan capital Palma followed a formal complaint by a lawyer acting for Mac Hotels which owns the three star Paradiso Garden Hotel in Playa de Palma as well as the three star Club Mac resort in Puerto Alcudia on the island’s north coast.

The private investigators are understood to have included photos and taped conversations in the report handed to police, gathered partly from an exhaustive social media search.

Exact figures of the numbers of tourists whose compensation claims form part of the investigation were not available yesterday, although local reports suggested they ran into hundreds and dated back to last December.

Concerns about similar claims led Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson to declare that the digestive systems of British people had ‘become the most delicate in the world’. It was unclear whether the arrest and questioning of two Britons suspected of inciting tourists to make false claims was linked to the latest investigation.

But officers who quizzed the British pair, aged 30 and 29, said they were operating mainly in the areas of Puerto Alcudia where the Club Mac resort is based as well as nearby Puerto Pollensa.

Carolina Ruiz, a lawyer at Monlex Abogados, a firm which specialises in the tourism industry, handed over details of Mac Hotels clients suspected of making fake compensation claims.

She said: ‘The judicialization of this operation is an important step in the fight against fraudulent claims which hotels are suffering with a feeling of helplessness.’ The file submitted to police is believed to include proof the hotel group had passed all its health inspections with flying colours.

Thomas Cook chief executive Peter Frankhauser warned this week that bogus food poisoning claims risk making British holidaymakers the laughing stock of Europe.

The travel firm boss told an Abta conference the actions of a ‘very small minority’ risked having an impact on the ‘majority of honest Brits who worked hard for their annual holiday’.

Other holiday chiefs have said Britons will end up barred from all-inclusive resorts because of the fraudulent claims.